“While we worked with Jamaica and other Caribbean countries to help improve their security, the U.S. had nothing to do with the institution of the CARICOM visa…” James T. Heg, U.S. Charge D’affaires, U.S. Embassy, Jamaica in a letter to the Jamaica Gleaner

So Who’s Idea Was The Last Minute Implementation Of The Disastrous CARICOM Cricket Visa?

Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley is in charge of the CARICOM Security Committee that implemented the visa requirement at the last moment – just the week before Christmas.

Deputy Prime Minister Mottley had implied that the Americans were behind the push for the disastrous CARICOM Cricket Visa. Now we know the truth – it was Mottley and her Security Committee – and no one else.

After years of preparation and planning for Cricket World Cup in a post-9/11 security environment, Mia Mottley and friends waited until the very last moment to announce to the world that a visa was necessary.

The impact of the last-minute visa requirement upon the Cricket World Cup cannot be underestimated. Although Mottley and company state that the requirement was only directed at a small group of expected visitors, it threw the travel industry into chaos for over a month.

The Mottley crew said it was all about security, but as many have pointed out – that is nonsense…

– While Australians, New Zealanders and Swedes required a visa, Canadians, Americans and Brits did not – even if they were Muslim immigrants to those countries and presumably much more of a risk than a Kiwi cricket fan.

– Although CARICOM visas were required for folks arriving by air, they were not required for those arriving by sea. Presumably Islamist terrorists never take ships, so the thousands and thousands (?) of visitors arriving on cruise ships were not required to have a visa no matter where they were from. (See our article Islamist Terrorists Never Take Cruise Ships…)

From the start, the Australian media called it a blatant cash-grab, and in retrospect, it sure looks like they were correct.

The public relations damage done to Barbados and the Caribbean by the visa fiasco is immense, but all along Mottley said “security, security, security” even when faced with the obvious idiocy of her statements and the chaotic implementation.

American charge d’affaires clears the air

Jamaica Gleaner – April 3, 2007

The American Embassy in Kingston has defended the role of the American Government in helping to provide aspects of security for Cricket World Cup 2007. In a letter to The Gleaner yesterday, James T. Heg, charge d’affaires, also denied that the U.S. had anything to do with the institution of a CARICOM visa…

Well thank you BFP this is what I have been asking from the very start now we know and have had it confirmed that this was the brain child of Mia Mottley she to ought to resign forthwith what are these people trying to do to the region
This was always going to be an act of madness to put a visa requirement in place with very little time to go to the start of the World Cup, I suppose that they will find someone to blame for their nonsense.

I remember Mia on a call in programme being very evasive and saying that the introduction of visas had to do with security and further that she could not go into details because of the said security concerns.

I have seen in the Nation today where Police were denied entry to Millennium Heights where they were going to, to intervene in a domestic dispute.
Now this is absolutely amazing that we can have the law of the land challenged in this way and so to when they were searched by World Cup security is it that our law and order is now relagated to backups and the main security is now in the hands of private security firms and secondly why is this now happening with such regularity that our police force is now treated as secondary?

Jamaica Minister of Security, Peter Phillips, said the international agency would be adding its assistance as the region prepares to host its biggest ever event.

Phillips, who led a delegation to Britain and France, said Interpol would send a team to the Caribbean next month to review the region’s security plan. An international advisory group with two British visa experts involved at the Athens Olympics will visit at the same time.

The strategy involves a complex of mechanisms such as a permanent Interpol presence during the period; a special 400-man regional force of police and soldiers to beef up local security (at a cost of US$13 million), and committed co-operation from Britain, Canada, and the United States.

It was Barbados’ Mia Mottley who has coined the concept of a “golden period” for freedom of movement during the CWC with an extra two weeks for loitering visitors to get their acts together should they wish to stay, legally, beyond that period.

Everything about this CWC is a money grab. The Caricom Visa is just one. You know why I think it was not a security issue like Mia Mottley said? Canadians were not required to obtain a Caricom visa, yet Canada has a a huge muslim population, many of whom would travel here to support the indian teams that were involved in CWC. After 911, Canada was accused by the U.S. government of being a breeding ground for terrorists….hello… big security risk don’t you think???? I know that Canada and Barbados share a non-visa arrangement, however, since security was the big issue and Interpol was supposedly involved, I would have expected Canadians to be subjected to the same visa restrictions for CWC as the other countries. So why weren’t they Ms. Mottley?